tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post1580871623206629428..comments2024-03-28T15:25:05.152-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: International mafias and our struggle to surviveDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-26783840925337140002020-05-14T13:19:35.835-07:002020-05-14T13:19:35.835-07:00Trump’s returns (personal and business) have been ...Trump’s returns (personal and business) have been audited many times by the IRS and probably by the state of New York. If the government thought there was underreported income, they would have assessed unpaid or underpaid taxes. Trump and his companies would then either have to produce their books and records to disprove the assessments, or pay up. If the government thought there was criminal under reporting, the files would have been referred to the Justice Department (or the NY equivalent) for prosecution. I know this because I’ve been at government tax prosecutor for much of the last 30 years. I’ve seen some really dirty players in that time. <br /><br />My guess is that Trump is fighting the release of his business records for 3 reasons. 1. It will show how bad a businessman he is. 2. There will be plenty of information that can be fairly or unfairly made to look bad (such as, DHMO, the silent killer - you can make water look like a dangerous chemical). 3. His business partners and deals could be subject to retaliation by people who hate Trump to the point of distraction.GMT -5 8032https://www.blogger.com/profile/04677459423995332529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81071585035142424012020-05-09T16:19:47.551-07:002020-05-09T16:19:47.551-07:00onward
onwardonward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40441223602819468752020-05-09T15:30:28.894-07:002020-05-09T15:30:28.894-07:00Good story LH.
Scidata: at least they are now mak...Good story LH.<br /><br />Scidata: at least they are now making expensive satellites with grapples to attach upgraded systems for power/propulsion... and soon refueling. Only took 60 years.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57197406647448406912020-05-09T15:09:09.439-07:002020-05-09T15:09:09.439-07:00Re: SpaceX bargain prices
What I'd like to do ...Re: SpaceX bargain prices<br />What I'd like to do is set up a space-based repair shop. Waiting 10 years for everything to be perfect before launching anything (eg the JWST, probes, stations) is insane. Top scientists and engineers sitting around, wasting the best years of their lives.<br /><br />Ships' carpenters were commonplace in the days of sea exploration/exploitation. Just launch it now, and handle contingencies as req'd. Allons-yscidatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07152319593457629592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36883870709115360702020-05-09T14:45:53.520-07:002020-05-09T14:45:53.520-07:00matthew:
I love my job...
This has not always be...matthew:<br /><i><br />I love my job...<br /><br />This has not always been true in my life. I've had to work jobs I hated. Shit that just sucks.<br /><br />So I'm lucky. I worked myself into the right niche by education and persistence and luck.<br /></i><br /><br />I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but that also mirrors my own life. I worked for twelve years in the IT department of a truck manufacturer, and then four more in the same position as a contract employee (after they outsourced my department). I didn't hate it, but as time went on, the pressure to work unpaid overtime made the job increasingly less tolerable. I hung on mostly out of inertia and the need to have my family covered by health insurance.<br /><br />In 2016, with one week's notice, my contract which I had been assured would be renewed was not. I was out looking for work in the immediate aftermath of Trump's election.<br /><br />After a year and a half with only a six month contract breaking it up, just as unemployment benefits and COBRA were about to expire, I landed the job I have now with a Health Care provider, also in their IT department. Not only did they offer me a higher salary than I had been making previously, they didn't require the usual "10 years experience with..." their particular ETL tool, but trusted that I could learn it in a few weeks (which I did). I'm enjoying my job for the first time in many years, I have a fun team to work with who all have each other's backs, and there's at least one person there who I would make a point of protecting in an active shooter situation. And being a Health Care provider, they have plenty of work for us at the moment.<br /><br />The company that laid me off in 2016 did me the biggest favor of my life.<br /><br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40357614934361902952020-05-09T14:36:06.837-07:002020-05-09T14:36:06.837-07:00Alfred Differ:
My wife and I just celebrated our ...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />My wife and I just celebrated our 25th in this semi-quarantine.<br /></i><br /><br />There's a song from <i>Fiddler on the Roof</i> that mentions that particular duration. I get to sing it next year. :)<br /><br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43036155907200736472020-05-09T14:30:29.326-07:002020-05-09T14:30:29.326-07:00duncan cairncross:
The Finnish study (New Scienti...duncan cairncross:<br /><i><br />The Finnish study (New Scientist) has the same sort of results as the other places a UBI has been trialled - people end up working at least as much but they tend to be more selective and put more emphasis into longer term things<br /></i><br /><br />To the oligarchs, workers being selective about who they take orders from and under what conditions they do so is tantamount to treason. To them, the whole point of capitalism is to provide a workforce desperate enough for scraps that they'll meekly do as they're told.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91903620790680134802020-05-09T13:16:11.831-07:002020-05-09T13:16:11.831-07:00Larry,
Funny how it works out. 8)
My wife and I ...Larry,<br /><br />Funny how it works out. 8)<br /><br />My wife and I just celebrated our 25th in this semi-quarantine.<br />I owe her some silver. In the mean time I make her lattes.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61545533623916219772020-05-09T13:13:29.037-07:002020-05-09T13:13:29.037-07:00Acacia,
Understood. No mercy for people pissing o...Acacia,<br /><br />Understood. No mercy for people pissing on my rug<br /><br />scidata,<br /><br />SpaceX is the one driving prices right now.<br />The question is... What do YOU want to do is space at those prices?<br /><br />matthew,<br /><br /><i>UBI unleashes the inner capitalist in all of us. It lets people try to figure out how they can be a business or where they fit in.</i><br /><br />You are persuasive.<br /><br />I get that some fear freeloaders, but I don't. What I fear is making the promise to honest people and then not being able to deliver on it. If I promise to give someone time to find a way to make a living at what they love to do, I should be able to follow through with it. <br /><br />There IS a way to move someone like me off that fear. It involves an incremental approach. Nibble away at the costs we incur that trap is in shit jobs. Even without UBI, someone might be tempted go entrepreneurial if they didn't fear catastrophic health care costs. We'd get to make smaller promises that grew with time, the evidence that we can deliver, and the evidence that it is actually good for innovation.<br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6539519475994999932020-05-09T12:09:07.616-07:002020-05-09T12:09:07.616-07:00"UBI unleashes the inner capitalist in all of..."UBI unleashes the inner capitalist in all of us." Well, not all. There will be bums and lotus eaters.<br /><br />But Robert Heinlein - in BEYOND THIS HORIZON his utopian novel, agrees with you.<br /><br />While we're at it. Grab every single semi-right RASR you know who thinks Heinlein is a libertarian hero and role model and read this aloud to him. All of it.<br /><br />http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2017/03/looking-back-at-heinleins-future.html<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7575977882812144002020-05-09T11:32:04.660-07:002020-05-09T11:32:04.660-07:00Alfred, it's to improve their web search visib...Alfred, it's to improve their web search visibility. If their words are out there multiple times, especially "quoted" comments, then they become larger in Google's eyes. And thus at-risk young people who are more likely to accept these lies have a greater chance of coming across those comments in a search algorithm and can be recruited for these nationalist groups.<br /><br />Delete the comments. Don't ignore them. <br /><br />AcaciaAcacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24407874743680648692020-05-09T10:26:26.071-07:002020-05-09T10:26:26.071-07:00From Elon Musk:
mass to Orbit: $10/kg
mass to Mars...From Elon Musk:<br />mass to Orbit: $10/kg<br />mass to Mars: $100/kg<br /><br />Crazy. Maybe feeling competitive pressure from Long March :)scidatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07152319593457629592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24798394149250972162020-05-09T09:43:26.370-07:002020-05-09T09:43:26.370-07:00Alfred Differ:
He strikes me more as the jilted l...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />He strikes me more as the jilted lover heavily disappointed by a savior he placed on a pedestal who turned out to be quite human.<br />SO disappointed he will NEVER love again.<br />NEVER! 8)<br /></i><br /><br />Heh. I was literally at that point in mid 1991. Two years later, I met the woman I've been married to for almost 24 years now. I've come to believe that getting past that pedestal stage is a prerequisite for real love.<br /><br />That might be true in the metaphorical sense as well.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61144057070797501632020-05-09T09:42:56.446-07:002020-05-09T09:42:56.446-07:00The thing about UBI is that people love to work on...The thing about UBI is that people love to work on the stuff they love. <br /><br />I love my job. I love making stuff that saves lives. I love making stuff that enables us to move things around more efficiently. I even love making weapons (because I'm a caveman deep inside that believes, against all recent evidence, that my nation-state tribe is somehow a force for what passes for good in this fucked up world). I get to makes stuff and make stuff better and better every day. <br /><br />This has not always been true in my life. I've had to work jobs I hated. Shit that just sucks. <br /><br />So I'm lucky. I worked myself into the right niche by education and persistence and luck. <br /><br />UBI lets people find what I have found the hard way. It lets people figure out what they love to do and not starve while they do the mental / experimental / try-it-and-sse-if-it-sucks part of growing and evolving. <br /><br />UBI unleashes the inner capitalist in all of us. It lets people try to figure out how they can be a business or where they fit in. <br /><br />And if some folks spend their lives idling at a minimum level of aid from the rest of us? So what? Seriously, so fucking what? If you get to do what you love, and some folks take a free ride at a sustenance-level of existence, so fucking what?<br /><br />The funny thing, proven by hard numbers, is that we could afford it.<br /><br />The benefits of UBI safety net, on a societal level, far outweigh the drawbacks. <br /><br />Most people would rather work. At something they love. Or something they tolerate, but provides enough extra $$ that they can then go do something they *love*. <br /><br />The only people hurt by UBI are the people that need you to work at a job you hate. matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23029737691069195912020-05-09T09:39:07.530-07:002020-05-09T09:39:07.530-07:00Dr Brin:
You guys answered the "choose betwe...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />You guys answered the "choose between two bad things" logically and correctly, AFR and LH. But it is a false dichotomy.<br /></i><br /><br />I was arguing as I often do that <b>even if</b> I grant the right-wing framing for the sake of argument, Biden is <b>still</b> preferable to Trump. It's an argument that my side is right even in a worst case scenario. That is not meant to imply that I <b>believe</b> the worst case scenario.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84043286205390314482020-05-09T02:59:40.033-07:002020-05-09T02:59:40.033-07:00Hi Acacia
The Finnish study (New Scientist) has th...Hi Acacia<br />The Finnish study (New Scientist) has the same sort of results as the other places a UBI has been trialled - people end up working at least as much but they tend to be more selective and put more emphasis into longer term things duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71453548315578836342020-05-08T23:42:54.105-07:002020-05-08T23:42:54.105-07:00aw man. That guy is pissing on my blog comments no...aw man. That guy is pissing on my blog comments now.<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />I'll just say this once.<br /><br />I'm not willing to support a shadow conversation involving anonymous comments that contain copies of comments that people post here when it is obvious those anonymous commenters were banned here.<br /><br />I don't even want to support shadow conversations about what is discussed here. <br /><br />IF comments are directly relevant to my posts, they CAN be relevant here too and I'm okay with that.<br /><br />Otherwise, I'll delete them mercilessly.<br /><br />... and really. It's a waste of time.<br />No one is reading my stuff over there. I barely do.<br />It's a practical example of a honeypot.<br />Pissing into a blackhole.<br />cat comments >> /dev/nullAlfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-26692164573305561462020-05-08T22:39:40.983-07:002020-05-08T22:39:40.983-07:00According to New Scientist, the Universal Basic In...According to New Scientist, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2242937-universal-basic-income-seems-to-improve-employment-and-well-being/" rel="nofollow">the Universal Basic Income doesn't appear to lessen employment, and improves people's happiness and well-being.</a> At the same time NS came out with this article I found a dozen or more articles from economics journals claiming the exact opposite, calling UBI a failure and more. It's an interesting dichotomy, between a scientific journal and a bunch of journals that exist to discuss methods of increasing capitalism across the world in one form or another....<br /><br />AcaciaAcacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65274395326016590392020-05-08T21:53:02.803-07:002020-05-08T21:53:02.803-07:00That's either dumbass or Kremlin-boy.
Heh.
...<i>That's either dumbass or Kremlin-boy.</i><br /><br />Heh. <br /><br />He strikes me more as the jilted lover heavily disappointed by a savior he placed on a pedestal who turned out to be quite human.<br />SO disappointed he will NEVER love again. <br />NEVER! 8)<br /><br />I'm mildly curious who the demi-god was, but only mildly.<br /><br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18134825064927827152020-05-08T19:56:53.836-07:002020-05-08T19:56:53.836-07:00You guys answered the "choose between two bad...You guys answered the "choose between two bad things" logically and correctly, AFR and LH. But it is a false dichotomy. California is a world leader on pushing the switch to sustainables, with other All-blue states close behind. The Obama Cafe car mileage standards eliminated the waste of millions of barrels of oil. Coal is dying, despite everything the GOP can do to prop it up. Part of the desperation of Russia and the Saudis to control US politics is based on their dread of liberal endeavors eviscerating their petroleum bottom line. I could go on and on...<br /><br />...and this year is the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Car Race when I accomplished more good for the Earth's atmosphere than jim ever will, with all his hot air.<br /><br />Are the efforts of California, WA, OR and the rest sufficient? hell no. They lack federal power. Will Pelosi-Schumer-Biden emulate that blue agenda perfectly, if they get the power? Well, one hopes they've learned from 2009 and 1993 not to even try to compromise with the undead vampire elephant and to stomp it till decent conservatives wake up from the foxite trance. Even so, they likely won't satisfy 'jim'... and tthat's fine by me! We need a radical unsatisfied fringe that takes every new plateau and says "it's not enough!"<br /><br />No, what's despicable here is the pompous posturing "there's no possible plateau! It'll never happen and I won't help it happen! And I refuse to even look at facts that say otherwise! I won't help and you can't make me! Waaaa!"<br /><br />That's either dumbass or Kremlin-boy. And I don't care which.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55626973186381573982020-05-08T18:22:50.389-07:002020-05-08T18:22:50.389-07:00I still suspect that jim is in fact loco, wearing ...I still suspect that jim is in fact loco, wearing a disguise in order to try to move among rational people. He's given away, however, by his insistence on maintaining this weird straw man of how libruls are "supposed to" act.<br /><br />Because how jim's been behaving, on the rare occasions I've bothered skimming his blather, is pretty much exactly how loco used to claim libruls behave.Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31991155982932233922020-05-08T18:05:32.901-07:002020-05-08T18:05:32.901-07:00@Everybody and Jim,
While I believe Jim makes som...@Everybody and Jim,<br /><br />While I believe Jim makes some valid points, they way he does them makes me think (like OGH and others) that he is either a TAP (Trump Agent Provacatueur) or a "Bitter-Splitter. <br /><br />In any case Jim, you might like this *site better: https://www.ecosophia.net/the-end-of-the-dream/. <br />Greer (who actually writes quite well, IMHO) decries "smarty pants" in favor of the common sense of ordinary people (which come across as mainly being working-class, non-college-educated white people), and uses that as a rationale to support Trump who understands and channels the non-elite's/ordinary people's sense of being lied- and condescended- to by these same "smarty pants" liberal elites. (I don't recall him decrying "olies" nearly as much, when I followed his blog.)<br /><br />At any rate folks, we should follow the wisdom of ages and "**DON'T FEED THE TROLL!"<br /><br />SWA,<br /><br />KH<br /><br /><br /><br />*Especially if you like mysticism, magic, and astrology.<br />**And that applies to me as well- should I become trollish (like Loco Ranchero, In Loco Parentis, Procol Harum, whoever they were), IGNORE ME...Keith Halperinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15822725828807228502020-05-08T17:49:19.513-07:002020-05-08T17:49:19.513-07:00Larry,
One wonders how it is possible for a perso...Larry,<br /><br /><i>One wonders how it is possible for a person to think of themselves as a patriot and a supporter of democracy, and yet want to limit voting rights.</i><br /><br />Okay. I'll take a poke at this, but I'll give it a science fiction twist since I sense a new thread arriving soon.<br /><br />_________<br />Imagine we lived in a world where an expensive drug could be acquired by men to give to their wives that would make their wives slavishly obedient in the voting booth. Any man who could afford the drug would effectively double his voting power. If we tolerate polygamy, the multiplier would be larger.<br /><br />Whether a similar reciprocal pill existed or not, we'd have a problem. One person/One vote would be out the window. What to do? Some would make a reasonable argument for preventing women from voting. Whether we liked it or not, we'd have to consider that option along with other expensive, intrusive methods for detecting whether women voters had free will when they arrived to vote. Early testing wouldn't be sufficient. We'd have to consider proof tests at polling stations. All of these options are ugly possibilities, but their purpose would be to restore 'one person/one vote'. One could construct ethics arguments in opposition AND in favor.<br />_________<br /><br />One of the early arguments against suffrage for women was that they'd vote as their husbands required. In hindsight, this is a very silly argument for Americans suckled on SOA the moment they are born. Just on an anecdotal level, I know my sisters are more feisty than I am. Much more.<br /><br />It's not such a bad argument, though, when it comes to people who are dependent on others for their livelihoods. My employer can't require slavish behavior of me, but they CAN take note of my politics and adjust my opportunities for advancement at work. How many women face such pressure today? Pfft. I could put this comment on Twitter and get rightly slapped around by thousands of women for even sounding like I doubt the possibility. As it happens, I don't doubt it. <br /><br />So… should those of us captured by our employers vote? Whether we are allowed or not, aren't we risking breaking 'one person/one vote'? Can each of us look at ourselves in the mirror and reasonably believe we exercise free will in the voting booth? There is no right or wrong answer here, but the opportunity to think about it and realize that there might be a valid point to make favoring voter suppression.<br /><br />… and now I have to go take a shower. It's a dirty argument I don't like describing. I'd rather believe that it will all wash out because our employers don't all agree, but I'm deeply concerned that it doesn't. Wash out. That's a big part of why I don't mind some people choosing not to vote.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57814451363121500282020-05-08T17:31:24.323-07:002020-05-08T17:31:24.323-07:00jim,
We all know climate change is caused by burn...jim,<br /><br /><i>We all know climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels, any effective response to climate change has to reduce the burning of fossil fuels.</i><br /><br />Yes, but that's not what we are discussing.<br /><br />The debate is whether anyone will actually try to do something effective.<br /><br /><i>Democrats – believe [snip]……. And their plan to deal with this existential threat is do purely symbolic actions like…</i><br /><br />You are arguing that neither side will try.<br />Our host argues one side will try.<br /><br />THAT's the potential bet to make. <br />The shape of the bet is 'what constitutes trying'.<br />The odds depend on what both sides can agree would count as an attempt.<br /><br />Whether one side is effective in what they try is dependent on one side actually trying, no?<br /><br />WILL ANYONE TRY?<br /><br />That's where we challenge you to plunk down a bet.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1907442227439971062020-05-08T17:24:17.932-07:002020-05-08T17:24:17.932-07:00Duncan,
I'm familiar with the argument. It ap...Duncan,<br /><br />I'm familiar with the argument. It appears in variations in a few places.<br /><br />1. In a post-glaciation world, climate change forced a lot of us to change our social organizations to support a life of staying put to tend crops and herds. Between fouling our own nests and poorly fit domestic grains and animals, our life expectancy dropped, but our population boomed.<br />2. This approach provided static locations for raiders to attack, however. People adopting agricultural and pastoral lives were living near subsistence levels, but had to invest in defense structures and the occasional offensive foray.<br />3. The population boom ensured our older methods supporting indirect reciprocity would fail. There were too many people to track and we relied upon them to provide defense.<br /><br />It goes on with the rise of strong-men/cheaters who did just enough to justify the local population supporting them. Racketeering mostly, but when your strong-man captures slaves your city can use effectively, your population eats a little better. Defense costs are amortized across a larger community.<br /><br />It goes on further with the observation that people living well within a border don't have to spend as much on defense. That cost might be captured by the local lord, but imperfectly. More babies get fed and population goes up wherever people realize this efficiency.<br /><br />Fast forward a few millennia (and past the Y-chromosome bottleneck) and you get survivors using a successful strategy that leverages local lords into Kings, Priests, and Dons. Most still live near subsistence levels, but we number over 500 million (somewhere between Rome's collapse and the start of recovery in Europe) instead of the 5 million or so alive when the ice sheets were a mile thick on top of Northern Europe. We have a multi-century civil war underway in Europe for who runs everything, but most people at a local level are better at cooperating than they were when we were nomadic HG's.<br /><br />———<br /><br />We'd still be doing this today except for the law of large-numbers-of-monkeys-at-typewriters. The Dutch tripped across a better way. It got copied by the envious English (who are on record as having despised it at first) and then spread like a virus. <br /><br />I strongly suspect that the only viable way of preventing cheaters from dragging us back to the feudal attractor is moving forward with our unintended/unguided suppression of Stone Age instincts in our markets. That does NOT count the inclination of cheaters to give their off-spring advantages. THOSE instincts are far older than the Stone Age. That also does NOT mean blindly stumbling forward. Eyes open, but be wary of our inclination to apply all moral concepts applicable to nomadic HG's to urban life. Especially be wary of our inclination to apply moral concepts applicable for pastoralists. Some might still apply, but some don't scale.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.com